Page:The Mastering of Mexico.djvu/190

156 must be neat and clean; and they entered his presence barefoot and eyes cast down. During three prostrations they were obliged to make before they came up to him they must say in their speech, "Lord, my Lord, my great Lord," and make their report with eyes still cast down and in fewest possible words. Withdrawing from his presence, their formalities required that they should not turn their backs but keep their faces towards the monarch and eyes still on the ground and back out of the room.

For his dining his cooks prepared over thirty different dishes, placing small earthern brasiers underneath each that the food should not get cold. Not often, but sometimes, Montezuma went out with the officers of his household and chose of what his dinner should be; but this was mere pastime. I heard it said that the flesh of young boys, as a very dainty morsel, was sometimes set before him. If there were any truth in this we could not find, on account of the variety every day cooked, such as fowls, turkeys, pheasants, partridges, quail, wild and tame geese, venison, musk boar, pigeons, hares and rabbits, and many other sorts of birds and beasts, which it would not be an easy task to name. But this I do know, that after Cortes reproached him with the sacrifices of human beings and the eating of their flesh, he ordered that no such dishes should again be brought to his table. Every kind of fruit which